China's new fighter, the J-20, uses a combination of stealth and datalinks to compete with the best fighters on the planet. Now, state media says the country is also mass-producing metamaterials for the aircraft, which could make it an electromagnetic force.
What are metamaterials? In this case, we're talking about composite metals and plastics that use artificial geometry to influence the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, as well as elastic waves and sounds. Some metamaterials built using nanotechnology can also be used as super strength materials. In fact, optical metamaterials have already been used to demonstrate invisibility by 'redirecting' visible light around itself to avoid reflection, hence their frequent reference to the popular fiction of "cloaking" in Star Trek and Harry Potter. (No real-life cloaking shields have yet been demonstrated).